Please forgive my indulgence in some backloggery-related ephemera today.
A game called Halo 4 is out! Perhaps you have heard of it.
I would be writing up my Impressions, but I have not gotten to play it yet. The reasons for this are myriad but could mostly be summed up with the words “money” and “time.” I have been busy this week. I’m working on a game! And I have another thing on my plate too.
See, I got another hit of the Red Vs. Blue for a review. It was sent post-hurricane and the review embargo on it is lifted. There is a small problem, which I must enumerate. We are, in fact, a Halo Household. That means we have one of these:
No, not just the ridiculous cat. She just likes getting her picture taken. The Halo edition XBox. Which, if you’re paying attention, is not one of these:
And the Red Vs. Blue are these:
Which, while truly awesome, do not play on an XBox because of this:
I am not, therefore, able to watch them yet… I am, however, able to point out the irony!
Since I was sent this product, I will review it at some point, but it may be a while. It is, after all, 18 hours of Blu Ray footage. When opened, that looks like this:
So at some point this holiday season, I am going to Halo my face off. When I do, you’ll be the first to know with trip reports (well, second, after my husband, who shall be made to endure). In the mean time, does anyone know anyone I can tweet at to win a PS3? … okay, yes, that was a joke.
Email the author of this post at aj@tap-repeatedly.com.
oh you
What is this Halo 4 of which you speak? I remember this awesome game called Halo: Combat Evolved, but I’m pretty sure that’s the only Halo game that has ever existed. Ever.
Look at that packaging…it’s so real. RvB has come so far! I missed a lot of the humour in RvB because of my lack of hipness, and sometimes my lack of Halo knowledge/general meme awareness. I took the ride for the sight gags.
I log into twitter once-a-month-ish, Amanda, so feel free to tweet me @106_beats_that when you’re in the mood to win not a PS3, and if it’s the lucky day that I log in you’ll win not a PS3! Win not looks funny. Like how Word always tells me not to write can not, but rather cannot. Winnot.
Hear ye, come all, to my tweeter, and Winnot glorious prizes!
P.S. Botch: I liked ODST, and then Reach a little more than that. I still have never finished Combat Evolved (I have a save file on my Xbox somewhere on that damn Covenant ship). I hope you can still find it in your heart to virtually socialize with me.
You…never…fin…but…teh hayloes…well I’m speechless. I can see we’ll have to do a thorough re-evaluation of your credentials. I’m sure you understand.
All goofing aside, any mention of Halo and I’m urged to write a wall of interesting (to me only mind you) text about my love/hate relationship with it. With that in mind, I’ll stop now.
Oh, and I’m looking forward to your updates Amanda. Right. Stopping. Now.
“that damn Covenant ship”? Do you mean the Truth and Reconciliation? That’s, like, the third level!
Halo is the one series that makes me wish I had an Xbox of any kind. The rest of the system’s game library leaves me pretty cold. I’m sure one of these days, maybe next generation when 360s drop significantly in price, I’ll pick one up just to play the Halo library.
Also, AJ, I was hoping for tales from a Halo household! That’s what I was promised! This is more of an inventory!
I’m a big Halo fan myself. I’ve played and finished all the games on Legendary difficulty. Currently working my way through Halo 4 (wow, is it pretty).
While the campaign’s story telling isn’t very strong (in the entire series), the gameplay is fantastic (especially on the harder settings) and the battles are a ton of fun and play out differently everytime thanks to the great A.I.
Oh the T&R on Legendary. That first room with all the inviso-Elites. Now that’s a tough nut, even in co-op.
Also, AJ, I was hoping for tales from a Halo household! That’s what I was promised! This is more of an inventory!
Yeah… mostly. I really feel bad that I’m behind in things I promised to review, so I wanted to tease a product shot at least. 😉
Plus there’s no reason not to give the internet more pictures of my cat.
Right now, I think my plan is to hit Black Friday sales for my missing items.
I nearly missed the irony for a moment there. But I got the joke, yes siree.
“No, not just the ridiculous cat.” I laughed out loud at this.
I’ve never played any of the Halo games properly having never owned an Ecksbocks. My brother and I bought the PC version waaaay back but the low FOV drove us mad (low FOVs still do!).
The Truth and Reconciliation. One thing Halo obviously did well is epic. That’s the best name for a ship I’ve ever heard, screw Enterprise or Millennium Falcon.
I picture “The Truth and Reconciliation” as the secret name Dirk Diggler had for his penis. I picture the imperial officers’ nickname for the mega gun aboard the Death Star. I picture the cheeseburger that sends me to my grave.
Maybe that’s where I am, I don’t know. I swear I’ll finish it. You know…One day. Goddammit. Log.
My excuse is this: I exclusively gamed on my PC until 2004, and even still mostly until 2007. Whenever Halo came out (2001?) I didn’t care about some revolutionary console shooter because I was playing games with names like Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, Team Fortress Classic, and then when I finally did get an Xbox in very late 2004 there were other games with names like Half-Life 2.
It’s just my own perspective that has never had me smitten with Halo; it was never as impressive as other options I had at the time. I’m still learning to appreciate it, something I didn’t think I’d do. And from what I remember of playing it for probably the second or third time, on Xbox, last year, it has held up very well; the controls are good. They’re good now to me because I’ve had a good deal of practice with thumb-stick first-person shooting over the last several years.
I’ll get back to wherever I am, maybe The Truth and Reconciliation, some day soon. It’s only about #18 on my waiting list.
I’ve always had an affection for the way Bungie named ships in the Halo universe, whether Covenant or UNSC. Truth and Reconciliation. Pillar of Autumn. Forward Unto Dawn. I’ve always wondered (and if anyone’s given an explanation for this, I haven’t seen it) what the rationale, in-universe, is for ship names like that, versus something more derived from modern naval naming conventions (which is the approach most universes, including Star Trek, take).
Anyway. You don’t have to defend yourself on not playing Halo yet, or knowing quite what the fuss is about; it’s a game – a series – that does a very particular brand of shooter action very well, one it cobbled together from existing components and which has yet to be effectively replicated. I think part of that is bigness, and I think that also makes it slightly harder to take in by yourself. I’ve always thought of Halo‘s campaigns as quintessentially cooperative experiences.